Now that Season 9’s So You Think You Can Dance has ended what else is there to talk about? Forget talk about… what else is there to watch… dance-wise?

It would appear that this is the season of the dance reality shows as two past contestants (and SYTYCD mainstays) from Season 2 have branched out to their own shows (A Chance to Dance and All the Right Moves) and new possibilities have popped up for fans of So You Think You Can Dance could sink their teeth into:

[…] The SYTYCD® Experience is a 2-3 day workshop filled with classes, seminars, mock audition opportunity, and performances! Our weekend will be the most exciting and educational dance event you have ever experienced! This event is for dancers, educators, and enthusiasts 18 & older!

The Experience Includes:
– Classes throughout the weekend
– Seminar Breakouts
– Performances from your favorite SYTYCD Alumni Dancers and other Special Guests
– Solo Showcase Opportunity
– Q and A
– Meet and Greet
– Amazing Scholarship Opportunities
– Optional Mock Audition for the opportunity to perform in the Saturday’s Opening or Closing Number of the Showcase

Also… as featured on So You Think You Can Dance: The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers
Featuring the dance talents of:Christopher “Lil’ C” Toler as ZChristopher Scott as CopelandWilliam Wingfield as KatanaStephen “Twitch” Boss as Dr.E

“They lie amongst us, preparing for battle, waiting to rise and change things for good. Some are gifted in ability, others are trained to master it and some, some have it bestowed upon them at birth, but they all must choose.” […] The lines come from the first episode of “The LXD” or “The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers,” a new dance-inspired Web series created by Jon M. Chu, the 30-year-old director of the hit 2008 movie “Step Up 2: The Streets” and the soon to be released “Step Up 3D.”

The series, […] is produced by Mr. Chu and Hieu Ho with Agility Studios and distributed by Paramount Digital Entertainment and is a leap in Web-based original programming for both the companies and Mr. Chu. (An exclusive clip from the first episode of “The LXD” is available at nytimes.com/dance.)

My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

Judge Paula Abdul on Drop Dead Diva. That woman has legs! Check out SYTYCD’s Mollee Gray and Will Wingfield, too. And…Margaret Cho? I guess this would make more sense if I watched the show. Anybody catch any other familiar faces?

It’s the offseason of SYTYCD and so I decided that I’d start making some lists related to the various dancers from the past 6 SYTYCD. Plus I’m at McDonald’s with my son and so what else should I be doing while he has the time of his life on the playplace? Exactly.

I figured I’d start this out with a bang and make a list of the most disliked dancers ever on SYTYCD. Granted this is a bit difficult to evaluate, but I think most people on the list are pretty obvious.

It is also worth mentioning that many of these dancers had a LOT of fans that adored them as well (including myself for a few). However, in most cases for every one that loved them there were also plenty of haters. I also should add that this doesn’t mean that the dancers on this list aren’t amazing dancers. In fact, all of them are outstanding. However, outstanding dancers doesn’t mean people like you.

Now to the list…

1. Danny Tidwell – Danny is a great example of someone who had a ton of fans, but also a ton of haters. The knock on him was that he was seen as arrogant and “entitled.” I personally think he was arrogant. He was a great dancer and knew it. Compare him to Jakob Karr who was great technically as well, but was always super humble. Had Danny been so humble he probably would have won his season.
2. Blake McGrath – I didn’t even see this season of the show, but the internet archives I’ve read show that people really didn’t like Blake on the first season. He was arrogant and wore it on his sleeve. In fact, he still does. At least you know who he is, but Blake definitely had plenty of haters.
3. Lacey Schwimmer – Lacey is a really interesting case. She had to be in her brother’s shadow a bit even though she was very different. She was also partnered with no 1 on this list. Not to mention her rawness and unique qualities along with how proud she was of her uniqueness all combined to have many people not like Lacey.
4. Will Wingfield – See Danny’s desription and it was the same storyine, but not quite as strong. Brandon Bryant almost fell into this group also, but was able to avoid it with a killer solo and a little more humility. Brandon can likely thank Mia for that.
5. Ivan Kourmaev – Most people loved Ivan until he started staying on the show “longer” than people thought that he should. As people who were more “talented” than him went home people started to really dislike Ivan and want him off. Not his fault for defying odds.
6. Legacy – This is similar to Ivan, but Legacy did grow a little more than Ivan did on the show and so the dislike wasn’t quite as strong.
7. Kayla Radomski – Perfect technically and lack of personality was the gripe by many. White lightning still had a huge fan base, but many people wanted her off despite her technical prowess. I also think many women were jealous of her incredible legs. I don’t blame them. If I were female I’d be jealous too. Since I’m not she was one of my favorites.
8. Paris Torres/Tony Bellissimo – Paris was on for such a short time that people couldn’t make a real judgment, but for some reason people seemed to hate her first impression. People just never thought that Tony even deserved to be on the show.

I’m sure I missed someone since I wrote this on my phone. So, let’s hear who you think should be on this list that isn’t? Would you rank them differently.

A big thanks to Selly from Dance Outlook for sending us the following writeup about the So You Think You Can Dance Tour visit to Kansas City. If you have been to a different city and have pictures, videos or want to write about your experience, then let us know. About one more month left for the So You Think You Can Dance tour and there are still tickets available for future tour stops.

Without further ado, here’s Selly’s experience and pictures from the So You Think You Can Dance Kansas City tour stop:
On Wednesday night, I attended the 2008 SYTYCD Tour at Sprint Center in Kansas City. I had amazing seats (thanks to presale) in the 5th row. I actually enjoyed the show more than I expected to. This has been my least favorite season, but I had a lot of fun seeing all of the dances live. I didn’t take notes, so this isn’t going to be a formal review by any means, but just some general notes/comments.

Kherington needs to close her mouth. Instead of smiling at inappropriate times like she did on the show, most of her facial expressions are approximately :O This was actually one of the first things I noticed during the show.

After the requisite video montage of Nigel’s Top 5 “memorable” (aka bad) auditions, the dancers came out and performed Shane Sparks’s Elevator group number.

The dancers were introduced and did mini-solos. They then re-introduced themselves live. Katee then said that she would not be performing at all that night due to injury. I knew she had hurt her back, but I still had hope for at least the Will/Katee Complexions Pas De Deux or at least No Air.

Twitchington performed first with their “We’re Escaped Convicts” hip hop by Napoleon and Tabitha. Among other dances, they did a “world tour” of dance styles from around the world featuring Thayne and Chelsie’s Cha Cha, Josh and Twitch’s Trepak which Gev introduced in Russian (and a dress), Courtney and Mark’s Viennese Waltz (once again, Gev wore a dress), and the group Bollywood number.

Some of the highlights of the night for me were Bleeding Love, Five Guys Named Moe, The Garden, The Dance, Twitchington’s “Bed” contemporary (which I have rose petals from in my purse), Money Money, and pretty much anything involving Chelsea H., Courtney, or Mark.

Despite the odd facial expression, I was actually really impressed by Kherington. Because all of the dances involving Katee except for group numbers were cut, some “emergency backup dances” were added in addition to the ones on the normal set list. These included Courtney and Josh’s Frankenstein hip hop (which I have no recollection of ever seeing before), Courtney and Gev’s Rumba, Jessica and Will’s “Shirt” contemporary, Marksie’s Kiss Kiss jazz and Twitchington’s Too Darn Hot Broadway.

I think there were a coupe other Courtney dances added, too. Because Katee did not perform, Jessica King did her solo which I was not at all impressed with. I know there’s a lot I haven’t talked about, but it’s really hard to remember everything. However, if you have any specific questions, it would probably make it a lot easier for me to come up with an answer than to post every single little detail that I can dredge up.

At one of the merchandise stands, I bought a tour t-shirt (just the regular one, not anything dancer-specific), leggings, and a program, all of which were ridiculously overpriced, but super cute. People were going crazy with grabbing fake money, rose petals, and confetti when they swept the stage off. I managed to grab some rose petals and ended up with a random lost bobby pin from the stage in an attempt to get confetti.

I took a lot of pictures before intermission, when my camera
conveniently died, but I’m fairly sure my camera is broken. They all
turned out massively blurry and most of them had weird lines across
them. I tried to pick out some of the better ones though.

Mary Murphy’s pick
Katee Shean and Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced Contemporary to the song “Mercy”—Duffy choreographed by Mia Michaels – Original Music Video
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Katee & Twitch

Top 5 Male dancers group dance to the song “Five Guys Named Moe” from Five Guys Named Moe (Broadway; Choreographer: Nigel Lythgoe)
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – The Top 5 Guys

Adam Shankman’s Pick
Courtney Galiano and Mark Kanemura danced Jazz to the song “The Garden”—Mirah choreographed by Sonya Tayeh
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Courtney & Mark

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Katee & Will

Lil C’s Pick
Chelsie Hightower and Mark Kanemura danced Hip-Hop to the song “Bleeding Love”—Leona Lewis choreographed by Napoleon D’umo and Tabitha D’umo – Original Music Video
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Chelsie & Mark

Adam Shankman’s pick
Comfort Fedoke and Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced Hip-hop to the song “Forever”—Chris Brown choreographed by Dave Scott – Original Music Video
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Comfort & Twitch

Mary Murphy’s Pick
Courtney Galiano and Gev Manoukian danced Rumba to the song “Wishing on a Star”—Rose Royce choreographed by Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Courtney & Gev

I really don’t think there’s much argument that Joshua Allen was a great dancer and was very deserving of the prize of America’s Greatest Dancer. However, after the success of my top 4 SYTYCD poll, I thought it would be fun to put a couple polls up to see how readers of this site would vote for their FAVORITE dancer and then for the BEST dancer.

Today I was sent a TV Guide article that has some quotes from Nigel Lythgoe talking about the departure of Will Wingfield from So You Think You Can Dance. The part in quotes is from the article with my commentary in between.

Did the brilliant Will Wingfield exit Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance too soon? Head judge/executive producer Nigel Lythgoe certainly thinks so.

Who cares what Nigel thinks? It’s not his choice anymore it’s America’s.

When the moment of truth arrived during last week’s results show, here’s what the audience didn’t see: Lythgoe putting his head down on the judges’ table as if he couldn’t bear to watch what was going to happen next. Would it be Will or another audience favorite, Twitch, getting the boot?

How funny is this? Nigel acts as if Will getting booted off is wrong. This of course would assume that there’s a right and wrong answer. The fact is that there isn’t. There’s no such thing as right or wrong when we’re talking about a favorite dancer. Especially since Fox has said repeatedly that So You Think You Can Dance is “America’s Favorite Dancer.” Considering Nigel Lythgoe isn’t even an American, then does his opinion really matter in a contest for “America’s Favorite Dancer?” America voted and America decided. It’s great that way and that’s the beauty of America.

When Cat Deeley announced that Will would be going home, the crowd gasped. Widely acknowledged to be the finest all-around dancer this season — and coming off of a sensational pas de deux with Katee Shean and a rousing James Brown imitation in his Wednesday solo routine — nobody saw it coming. After the initial shock, the audience gave a standing ovation. “To me, it’s very much like losing Chris Daughtry or Tamyra Gray from American Idol,” Lythgoe said after the show. “Either one of them leaving — Will or Twitch — was a big disappointment. I really thought Will, Twitch and Joshua would be fighting it out until the end.”

So I must admit. I really actually enjoyed Will’s James Brown imitation. The pas de deux was incredible because of Katee I thought, so no surprises there for me when Will got booted. I can agree that Will is a great dancer, but dancing isn’t just about technique. Will didn’t have that it quality that I think the final three men had and that’s why he’s gone.

Twitch had fallen to his knees, with his back to the audience, when he landed in the bottom two, and had to be comforted by Deeley. “I had words with him,” shares Lythgoe. “I said, ‘Look, you’re in the Top 10. After this, there’s only going to be one winner, so please use the next few weeks just to enjoy yourself.'”

Cat Deeley comforting Twitch was one of the nicest parts of the show. As if we needed another reason to like Cat even more. I also love how Nigel “had words with him.” What a commanding father figure.

Lythgoe says Twitch will probably get the same kind of sympathy vote this week that hip-hopper Comfort got the week prior — before she was sent packing for a second time. Who will be standing at the end? “A boy is gonna be the winner this year,” says Lythgoe. “That’s my gut.”

It’s not about sympathy, but Nigel is right. Twitch fans will not provide sympathy votes, but they will get out and vote more than they ever have before. That spells trouble for Mark Kanemura.

I would normally say I don’t know at this point if a guy or a girl is going to win this year, but Nigel has more than his gut to determine if a guy is going to win. I imagine as producer of the show he’s seen the numbers of votes so I’ll go with him and say a guy will win. Joshua Allen winning So You Think You Can Dance would be a great ending and well deserved.

The following is all the music for the elimination dances and other group dances on SYTYCD top 8. It’s amazing to me how this elimination was the opposite of last week. I was fine with both people getting sent home. Last week I didn’t want to see either person leave.

Top 8 hip-hop Group dance: “Universal Mind Control” sung by Common
Guest dancer(s): Los Angeles Ballet Pas de deux; (The Man I Love from the ballet Who Cares?)
Musical guest: “Baby” sung by LL Cool J featuring The-Dream debut this new single on So You Think You Can Dance – Original Music Video

Comfort Fedoke danced a solo to the song “I Got This Down” sung by Simian Mobile Disco
William Wingfield danced a solo to the song “Get Up Offa That Thing” sung by James Brown
Katee Shean danced a solo to the song “Taking Chances” sung by Celine Dion
Mark Kanemura danced a solo to the song “Creator” sung by Santogold ft. Switch and Freq Nasty
Chelsie Hightower danced a solo to the song “Damaged” sung by Danity Kane – Original music video
Joshua Allen danced a solo to the song “Shawty Get Loose” sung by Lil’ Mama ft. T-Pain and Chris Brown – Original music video
Courtney Galiano danced a solo to the song “Where I Stood” sung by Missy Higgins – Original music video
Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced a solo to the song “Go To Work” sung by Kay L

Courtney Galiano and William Wingfield danced a Samba to the song I Fell in Love With the DJ—Che’Nelle choreographed by Jean-Marc Genereux – original music video
Courtney Galiano and William Wingfield danced a Hip-hop to the song Like You’ll Never See Me Again—Alicia Keys choreographed by Tabitha D’umo and Napoleon D’umo – Original music video
Katee Shean and Stephen Twitch Boss danced a Contemporary to the song Mercy—Duffy choreographed by Mia Michaels
Katee Shean and Stephen Twitch Boss danced a Broadway to the song Sweet Georgia Brown from Bubbling Brown Sugar choreographed by Tyce DiOrio
Comfort Fedoke and Mark Kanemura danced a Hip-hop to the song Party People—Nelly ft. Fergie choreographed by Tabitha D’umo and Napoleon D’umo
Comfort Fedoke and Mark Kanemura danced a Foxtrot to the song Lady Luck—The Brian Setzer Orchestra choreographed by Jean-Marc Genereux
Chelsie Hightower and Joshua Allen danced a Argentine tango to the song A Los Amigos from Forever Tango choreographed by Dmitry Chaplin
Chelsie Hightower and Joshua Allen danced a Disco to the song Everlasting Love—Gloria Estefan choreographed by Doriana Sanchez